Adrian Piper
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conclusion The Mythic Being and the Aesthetics of Direct Address Adrian Piper confronts racism, sexism, and xenophobia by di- rectly addressing the viewer with evidence of his or her respon- sibility for them. This is a method Piper began to explore as early as 1968, when she made artworks revealing the conditions of the viewer’s experience. She developed the practice in Cataly- sis, embracing performance to reach viewers directly, outside of the gallery or museum where expectations are mediated by discourses of art history and criticism. In 1970, she explained why she made unannounced performances: “The strongest im- pact that can be received by a person in the passive capacity of viewer is the impact of human confrontation (within oneself or between people). It is the most aggressive and the most threat- ening, possibly because [it is] the least predictable and the least controllable in its consequences.”1 In her Mythic Being perfor- mances, Piper adapted her approach to engage critically with popular representations of race, gender, sexuality, and class, challenging viewers to accept personal responsibility for xeno- phobia, discrimination, and the conditions that allow them to persist. To accomplish this goal, since 1975, Piper has reprised the Mythic Being to ask viewers whether they bear responsibility for him. In 1987, for example, Piper—dressed as the university professor she had become, in turtleneck and sweater—began a